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View Full Version : Project 86 - Big technical worklog with 20V + brake + suspension conversion



rthy
9th April 2006, 02:49 AM
<div align="CENTER">http://sam.theicy.net/auto/sprinter2.jpg

http://www.sam.theicy.net/auto/signiture.jpg</div>



This is my thread which has now been copied over for a third time, so if it doesnt make sense that's why.

I wanted a good all round package that has limited compramises, here's what I had in mind for it compared to standard:

- More power

- More Torque

- More braking power

- More cornering ability

- More predictable

- More reliable

- More rigid

- Enough room to still fit my bike in the back.

- Nicer suspension ride (by my personal taste)

- More comftable

- Better looking

- Nice stereo with some bass


the list goes on, basicly I wanted a daily driver that equiped well enough to go on a circuit should I choose to.

Also this has had the suspension tuned to eliminate oversteering, this is not for drifting!


Lastly I have tried to make the pictures as detailed as possible so that other people can learn from what I am doing. I am happy to help people and I don't beleive in keeping car secrets, so if you have a question about anything I am doing then ask me here.

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:56 AM
Anyway heres the specs that I currently have or I am planning to have:



Engine: Toyota 4AGE 20 Valve Silver top



Clutch/flywheel: 20V flywheel and exedy 212mm clutch



Induction: Factory quad-throttle bodies, custom made inlet trumpets with a custom airbox sucking through a K&N pod filter



Gearbox: T50 with custom short shifter
Planned gearbox mods: Installation of an oversized Delrin Shift Bushing and also a change of gear knob.



Diff: T-18 with disks with 1 : 4.1 TA-22 diff gears
Planned Diff: Current T-18 with TRD 2-way LSD center. With also custom stroke limiting rods.



Radiator/fans: Hyundai Excel with modifed hyundai mounts and one of the two OEM fans, which is the former air-con condessor one.



Front shocks: ST-204 4-way externally adjustables by KYB: AGX



Rear shocks: Modified Commodor IRS 8-way externally adjustables by KYB: AGX



Front Springs: Kings 65mm I.D coilover type, 275 pounds/inch (4.9 Kg/mm) 200mm long, Linear spring



Rear Springs: Custom whiteline, approx 60mm lower than standard, approx 180 pounds/inch (3.2Kg/mm), progressive spring.



Front Brakes: MK2 Supra vented 260mm



Front Brake Pads: QFM organic sport pads



Rear Brakes: ST-141 280mm disks with AE-82 corolla calipers.



Rear Brake Pads: Ferodo extra soft - low temp.



Pan-hard Rod: Custom made adjustable




Exhaust manafold: custom made, stainless, true equal length and equal diameter extractors, 4 to 2 to 1, 50cm primaries and half length secondaries.



Exhaust: fully deburred, mandrel formed, stainless steel system which is 2 1/4 inch. Middle metal cat that leads to an angled straight through stainless muffler with a chrome tip.



Ignition: OEM 4AGE 20V ECU in conjuction with modifed loom and custom waste spark ignition.
Planned ignition (second stage): 2 x Twin channel M&W ignitor modules with individual coil packs for each cylender.
Coils type: 4AGZE



ECU: OEM 4AGE 20V ECU in conjuction with modified loom.
Planned ECU (second stage): Wolf 3d 3.1 (already have)






Stereo:



Heat-unit: Clarion MP3

Front speakers: Jaycar response 4 inch

Front Tweeters: Ex OEM

Rear speakers: Alpine 6 x 9s

Amp (sub only): Cadence

Sub-woofer: Reactor

Woofer enclousure: Custom

Other bits: Composite parcel shelf and fader control adapter to be woofer level control.

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:56 AM
Heres what my car looked like when i first bought it:



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/sprinterside.jpg
http://sam.theicy.net/auto/rear.jpg







Now one of the first things I did was to take the imobilisor off to put an alarm with remote start on, When I take everything apart I found 2 complete imobilisers and I was left with this nightmare half way through:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/interior/030.jpg

That ball of black wires to the bottom right was the main one that was in use, I took it out carefully and is now installed on my friends Sylvia. I will never do an alarm ever again!






Next up I had to do something about the height, it was beyond a joke so I lowered it, heres a before/after:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/020.jpghttp://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/028.jpg

Bye bye 4 x 4, hello to it being dropped to the floor! And remember kids always use a safe and legal method to lower cars (hides angle grinder http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/wink.gif)

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:57 AM
Heres some more old projects I have done:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/turnlight.jpg

This is where I made my own clear indicators that use 4 LEDs in the sides. I plan to make another version of these in due time that uses a segment of leds from the back. I had to modify my flasher can because it didnt sense the current.







http://sam.theicy.net/auto/interior/wolf3d.jpg

Installation of my Engine Management System (EMS), its a Wolf 3D with a hand conroller.







http://sam.theicy.net/auto/interior/imodules.jpg

My twin channel ignitor modules for the ignition on a custom made mount.

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:57 AM
UPDATE: This was for when I was aiming to have a 4AGZE turbo hence the large pipe size, this is now very regretfully for sale.



Over the last few days there has been a strike with a picket line at my work which I was expected to be on, so what do I do? work on my car of course! Anyway I started by moving my original exhaust so it doesnt cross over from one side to the other and also so that it finishes before my diff. This leaves the other side completely free and allows my new exhuast to be fitted all the way to the back of the car. It starts as a 3 inch pipe and just before the diff it reduces down to 2.5 inch, all stainless, all equal length diameter bends and with no burrs or steps or intrusive welds.

It took me like 3 days of tedious work but heres what I ended up with:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/exhaust3.jpg

thats the 3 inch flex pipe at the front which I am hoping wont melt as I am expecting for part of this exhuast to start glowing red at times.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/exhaust2.jpg

Heres after it has reduced to 2.5 inch where it goes up and over the diff, this part alone took me so many hours. That handbrake cable will obviously need to be held well away.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/exhaust1.jpg

Taken out of car, notice the reduction in pipe size, although it looks bad on the outside the inside is nice and smooth and ontop has been ground and sanded for even better flow. On the end of this pipe is where I plan to attach my 2.5 inch stainless magnum stainless straight through muffler. If theres wasnt a turbo at the start of this it would be unbearably loud.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/exhaust4.jpg

A view from the inside, notice how theres a pair of grind marks on each join to match the pipes together, this is one of the reasons it took so long. As for the top while it looks like thres a step there there really isnt, its just an optical illusion.

I only tack welded it together for now, that because if I weld it fully not only will it be rough and potentially burn though it but it will also be gaurenteed to leave weld protrusions on the inside. So when I can I will be getting a friend to Tig weld everything together.

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:58 AM
I have to admit with this project that many times I have to ask myself if its worth it because it causes me stress often and it can be real frustrating to find information that I need amoungst all the crap, and trust me even amoung the Trueno fanatics they still speak alot of crap sometimes about certain things.

Anyway I have had yet another few setbacks, I have just found out by an engineer that my pipe when it reduces in size should have a taper of no more that 7 degrees, so no matter how much I have ground that part of it down smooth it has to come out and have something better put in. Anyway I am not going to tollerate such a compramise when I have spent so much time doing everything as perfect as I can so I have to do what I have to do, even if it takes half a day to make that one bloody adapter. The only way I can think of making something that fits that specs is to cut up a 3 inch pipe in two and carefully shape it into a taper, a long painfull and shitty job, never mind.

The other one is that my intercooler fits nice .. but with the inlet/outlet leaning on the subframe, so theres no way I can get some good piping to it. So much to my horror I will get my angle grinder out and rip into my new shiny cooler. I will chop the original 3 inch pipes off and probably replace them with a 90 degree 2.5 inch bend on either side higher up. This isnt bugging me so bad because now that I think about it it should be better in terms of smooth airflow. Just more hastle and money as I cant weld aluminium and no-one who owes me one does either.

Lasty I should post a new pic of my car, I have a new number plate mount which holds it near the bottom drivers side of the front and I also chopped out the mounts and extra plastic where it used to go. This has done two things for me, firstly it has unblocked a large area for the airflow, secondly it makes it look heaps meaner. I will be chopping more supports out of the bumper to give a more clean look, I will have to put some mesh behind it in due time though to protect my intercooler. I have also been thinking about modifying my grill because I think it looks so damn boring and I have an idea on how to make it look mean, it will take some nerves though as they dont come cheap.

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:58 AM
I know have one less problem! I managed to make a 3 to 2.5 inch reducer, it was suprisingly easy and most of the time was doing some internal die grinding to get it smooth. The difference over my previous one is dramatic, I dont know how many degrees it tapers down but its not much. took about 3 hours which for me isnt much compared to how much I was going to spend on it.



What i did is get a 3 inch pipe and mark out the sections needed to be taken out to make it taped down to 2.5 inch. I cut those sections out and then welded it, I ended up with this:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/reducer1.jpg



I welded the whole thing myself because I can get to the inside to grind it which I did do to grind it smooth with my die grinder.




after that I did some more cutting and shaping before welding the end fittings on, heres the result:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/reducer2.jpg

it doesnt get any more gentle than that!




I spent ages making the inside as smooth as possible with no steps at all, heres a pic:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/reducer3.jpg

it still looks a bit rough but running my finger over it its all very smooth with no protrusions





right now I have my exhaust system out of my car so when I get my muffler I will put it back in and fit this adapter, I will take a before after pic to show how dramatic the difference is.

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:58 AM
heres another one of my old projects, I continued my trend of not using sprinter parts by putting in some later model Celica seats. I will need to go back there and write down which model it came from for my records. Heres a pic I took half way when I had only done the drivers:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/interior/seatjob.jpg




for anyone whose interested forget it. I am an experienced car butcher and it still took me ages. I had to chop off all 4 mounts on each seat and start from scratch with my own design. The first seat took 12 hours!! and the second took 7 hours. Understandably I am not going to redo it anytime soon. Anyway the result was awesome, my passenegers dont even need to hold onto the Jesus bar anymore, and with my driving that's really something. They work so well infact that it actually feels like I am going slower. Another no so expected outcome is that its so much easier to steer around a corner, this is because I dont have to hold myself in position at the same time.

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:59 AM
heres my September 18 update:

got another peice in the mail today here it is:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/fuel/fuelpump.jpg

its a VL Turbo fuel pump which at free flow is rated at about 280Kw worth of fuel so it should supply enough for me when its under pressure. I sourced it through the forums and I will mount it under my car above the diff as soon as I can.


I made an interesting discovery today, and that is that I have room for a 2.5inch surge tank (AKA swirl pot). I didnt think initially that I had room for it so what I was going to do was to take my fuel tank out and get it proffesionaly modified to have a cup and a few baffles inside of it. This would of been a hastle and costly. But now I am going to fit a surge tank and get a second fuel pump.

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:59 AM
UPDATE: Looks like its back to plan A, I dont think I will use this tank but instead get my tank modified, it amoungst other things saves me having 2 pumps.


so this is what I ended up putting in:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/fuel/fuelgear1.jpg

this is going to be my surge tank, no prizes for guessing that I used a bit of leftover stainless exhaust pipe. To the left is the pan-hard rod and its mount, and behind that is the diff. To the Right is the fuel tank and all lines coming out of it. Its a tight fit but it should be ok. The total volume I have worked out to be is 500cc, if I am not mistaken this works out to 20 seconds worth of fuel when I am using 200KW of power, so yeah I dont think I will be going around a corner longer than that. I will need to obviously fit a top and bottom cap and also buy and fit all the fittings to it.

heres where the secondary pump will most likely fit (the VL one):

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/fuel/fuelgear2.jpg


I plan to have the pump mounted about there and the other pump above it. I also plan to make a full removable cradle that holds all this in place. This picture really shows how I am squeezing all my gear between my panhard rod and my fuel tank.

Also of note here is the fuel pump mount I made. I used some leftover exhaust pipe and some industrial tubing. I wanted this to insulate some of the vibrations of the fuel pump

rthy
9th April 2006, 02:59 AM
I picked up some more bits from the self serve wrecker today, here they are:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rad01.jpg

a 1991 Hyundai Excel radiator with fans and...

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rad02.jpg

an AE-82 corolla remote thermostat housing. I need this thing because the cooling system on my engine is designed for the front wheel drive layout it used to have. So when I convert it to a RWD I cant use most of the existing cooling system. I need this to put a thermostat inline.

I bought the radiator to upgrade my cooling system as a just in case measure. As a bonus I should be able to sell my old one off easy enough. I normally dont go in my garage much on a Sunday but I had a quick tinker and I managed to do a dummy fit. As advised by the toymods forum the excel radiator was a good match and they were right, the results are shown below:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rad03.jpg

To fit it I chopped off the original mounts on the car bodywork and I will be using the original Hyundai mounts. Looking at the pic the mounts are just sitting there, I will need to attach them somehow, but thats easy. For the bottom hose I used the original sprinter item which was a very close fit and with the hose being pre-heated a bit with the heatgun it went straight on. The top will require a bit more attetion but still it wont be too hard. Overall the radiator is a few CM longer, a tad higher and almost twice as thick. So it would have almost exactly twice the volume. Also the cooling fan setup is significantly better. I will need to work out how to control the fans, in the meantime I will have either nothing or a manual over-ride.

Also of note is that I managed to lower the radiator, this means I then use up more of the opening on the bottom and it will mean I can effectivly sit the intercooler lower.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:00 AM
Today was another long day. i managed to fit my radiator and on the side rewire the power supply to my brothers fuel pump in his car.

The bottom hose had already been taken care of, but on the top the inlet of the radiator and the outlet of the water pump were different sizes. I did however notice that the hose from one very nicely slid over the other. So what I did first up is use part of the sprinter OEM hose for off the water pump and the Hyundai one off the radiator, I trimed them down untill they fitted together nicely with them overlapping each other i the middle. I was happy to find it fitted very nicely together. From here I choped off an aluminium peice of pipe and jammed in into my smaller pipe off the radiator, again with some assistance from my heatgun. Like so:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rad04.jpg

from here the larger hose slid over the top and the aluminium insert was used to provide a support for the hose clamp that held the two together. Besacuse I had to use the heatgun to put the incert in I wont ever have to worry about it moving around, it just in there way too tight.

After it had all been done up:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rad05.jpg

There, looking like it was made to be fitted that way!


I made the brackets that the Hyundai OEM radiator mounts will screw into. I welded them on and spray painted them from an expensive colour matched metalic spray can I had laying around. Also as per usual I used toyota OEM bolts to hold it down to further the original look and practicality. Heres how it looked:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rad06.jpg

Also notice how the oginal overlfow bottle hose on the top left looks like it was made to fit on.

Lastly a pic from the back showing how nice it fits:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rad07.jpg


I also started on my electrics and I am still working on that, I will show some pics when I have done it. I am still thinking of what method I am going to use on this, one thing for sure is that I will have individual relays for each fan, and its almost certain I will have a switch mounted next to them for the manual overide.


UPDATE: Since my change of plan to get a 20 Valve non turbo I have no need for such an excessive cooling system. I havn't bothered to wire the fans on this thing up yet and I have been driving for like 2 months as is. Only after sitting it traffic for ages does it slowly warm up a bit, and it really drops quick as soon as it gets some airflow. It really is amazing how well it works. Anyway my point is that this isn't necessary for my plans anymore and I have decided to take off the larger fan. Ones more than enough and with the larger one gone it will free up some room. I guess I will take another pic once I take it off.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:00 AM
I picked up some parts today,

Rear shockers, notice the adjustable dial! Again in true tradition these arnt made for my car but instead an IRS Holden. They will need some custom mounts on my diff to fit but thats easy enough.

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/shocker.jpg

I also picked up an exhaust flange, some heavy duty Celica GT4 shocks for my front end and a complete set of springs for my friends Sprinter. He will be getting my current shockers.



Its been a while. Well I have had a drastic change of plans, it looks like I will sell my 4AGZE, my exhaust system, supra gearbox, intercooler and all assosiated accessories to do with forced induction. My plans have changed to fitting a 4AGE 20 valve with another one of my exhausts and intake that goes all the way through the radiator support to an air-filter that sits inbetween my radiator and bumper. It will be run by my Wolf EMS instead of the standard computer. Because its already a highly strung motor I would be happy to get 130Kw out of it, which is still awesome for an early 1.6L non turbo motor. I also plan to fit a lightweight flywheel, use the original driveline albeit with a heavy duty clutch. The N/A engine will let me keep the standard driveline which will let me keep the weight right down. I plan on having the finished wet weight to be under one ton.

The reasons for my drastic choice are many but the main one is the change in the focus of what I want to end up with. I am changing my aim from something that's awesome in a straight line and good around corners to something thats quick but beatable by some and a monster through corners.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:01 AM
I installed my rear AGX shockers into my car. Heres how I did it:



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/shocker1.jpg

This is the orginal design, an eyelet style with a bolt through the middle. The shockers I am fitting are almost identical with the exception of a 40mm shorter stroke and with a different bottom mount.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/shocker2.jpg

The Commodor used a realy primitive and stupid setup to hold the shocker in, its held in by one side only with a bolt thats aproximetly 13.5mm in the shank. To comensate for the pathetic design they used a big, heavy cast iron mount to fix it to. If that wasnt stupid enough they used a bolt with a rolled thread and a shocker that has a 15mm hole in it. So basicly all Commodors have heaps of slop in the lower mounts and rely on bolt tension to hold them captive. So what I did is get a spacer machined up which I pushed in. This is to reduce the diameter from the 15mm down to suit a common 10mm bolt. I decided to have a single bolt going right through.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/shocker3.jpg

Heres the deisgn I came up with, it uses 3mm plate. It uses a 10mm hex head bolt with a cylender shaped head. To stop any slop forming I welded a nut on one end and put a thick section of pipe to support the head at the other end. So I have the equivolent of about 10+ mm of material at either end of the bolt. Very simple, light and effective. In this photo I had chopped off the original mounts and was ready to weld mine on.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/shocker4.jpg

All welded up and painted. Looking here you see that I drilled 4 holes through the middle which I used to weld, I also welded from all the edges.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/shocker5.jpg

This is the top, the shocker was the same at the top however the bushes supplied with it were slightly different. Fitted into place the bushes show themself to be larger but it isn't a problem. To fit the covers I just pulled the inter peice of trim up a bit to clip them on. Once in place its indistinuishable.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/shocker6.jpg

All finished with the shockers mounted and ready to use.



Testing: It was a bit hard to test because I was experiencing front shocker problems at the time and I am using standard springs temporarily, however I found the new shockers to be awesome. From setting 1 it feels like a well worn standard sprinter item, to 8 where the whole car feels very well dampened. I recomend this to just about any sprinter driver who has the equiment to do it.




I have started to make myself a custom grill for my car. I think the standard grill on a sprinter is such a let down and is way too sedate. Anyway I have managed to source a second grill which has already has been chopped to fit spot-lights. Being already hacked I have no problems expementing with it. That way I still have my stock grill put away in a safe place. What I plan to do is to chop the middle out, mould some plastic edges on it and then put a black mesh in the middle, but set back in the grill. In the middle I will make my own levin logo. I have already cut and shaped the letters out of 5mm aluminium which took a while. Heres how it turned out:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/levinbadge.jpg


I am not sure yet how I will attach them to the grill but I will work it out.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:01 AM
I have had a bit of a setback, a pictures worth a thousand words:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/engine/nohead.jpg

I was happy to get my car running after having the suspension out for a while and I was out giving it a test run when I heard the engine sudenly make an ugly noise. I managed to limp home ok. After much cursing I eventually pulled the head off and found it had blown the gasket between the last two cylenders. I bought a gasket, put it in and put it back together. During a test drive it felt good (relativly speaking, its still a bloody 4Ac) but when I came back it was making a hissing sound. Looking at where it was leaking it apeared it was coming from where the coolant return pipe comes off the back of the head, crap! So now I am unsure what I will do. I am thinking of pulling the transmission out, because I have a spare and I want to try it out, so when I change it it will give me a good chance to get to that pipe, effectively hitting 2 birds with one stone.



My car is finally back on the road, but what a drama it was. I did end up taking the transmission out and I appled some gasket sealer to that pipe and also cut myself a gasket. Putting it back together it still leaked. So it was taken off again, fully scraped back to metal, cleaned up and ordinary silicone applied. It was bolted back up and it held tight, so much for the proper way. Anyway I decided to fit a spare T50 gearbox that I had that had ben sitting in the rain for atleast 4 years. So with Kev's (Phrostbyte) help we put it back in and connected it all up. Testing it out I realised it still needed some more work down, but the actual gearbox was in very good condition, which was fantastic, and no my spare T50 isnt for sale!

I also bought myself another steering wheel, so Kev will be getting my old one with an old boss kit i made a while ago. I will fit it as soon as I finish making the boss kit.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:02 AM
Another thing I have made/assembled/fitted: my bigger brake coilovers:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/coilover.jpg

The specs are as follows:


*ST-204 Celica GT4- KYB AGX 4 way externally adjustable shockers.

*MA-61 Celica Supra Brakes- 280mm vented disks with a massive calliper.

*RA-28 Celica struts- shortened 60mm with bottom seat replaced with Fulcrum 65mm coil-over collars. Also bottom side ground down partially to make clearence for brake calliper.

*RA-28 Celica brake caliper mounts: Severly modified to be used a a new mount for supra brakes. Original plate was cut right down and a new design mount was welded in place.

*RA-28 Celica spring tops: Severly modifed to not be a spring top anymore but instead be a retainer for the new aluminium coil-over spring tops.

*AE-86 strut tops

*250mm long free height, 150 pound King Spring- This is no good for me and will be replaced by a 200mm long, 325 pound King spring.


Notice the lack of clearence between the caliper assembly and the rim, theres approximetly 4 to 5mm gap:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/brakes/caliper.jpg


This isnt finished, heres what I plan to do still:

* I have had some ADR approved stainless steel brake lines made up for better feel so I plan to fit them once I am used to my better brakes so I know what the difference really is.

* A new custom clamp for the brake line on the strut.

* Paint the callipers in some 1200 Degree paint (red) I have.

* New brake pads. the current ones are like new but I want some sport pads for increased bite.

* New camber tops to allow for that adjustable camber which is missing from the factory. I will look for alternatives before using this as they are very expensive.

* 200mm, 325 Pound King Springs

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:02 AM
Heres my custom brake brackets, it was very hard to take a decent shot of these so I had to touch it up heaps in photoshop, hence the noise.

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/brakes/brake-caliper.jpg

I shaved a bit off the bottom of the strut where the red arrow is pointing. That edge used to be rounded between those two bolt holes, hence why there is a step that comes up. As u can see it was shaved back to make room for the plate that the caliper is supported by. From the photo what I did looks rough and not that strong, but it's quite the oppersite. I made it just about indestructable and then suported it a bit more.

For the brake bias its an issue that many overlook. Right now I have too much front bias, as in the front will lock up too early. I will fit a Wilwood brake bias adapter to whichever line needs it; front or rear. It needs the restriction on the front right now but that may be reversed once I fit the rear disks with the new diff. So I will wait till that is fitted and then see what happens. Its funny to hear that someone could pay $2500 on a rear disk conversion and then have bad braking power.


Also another shot of my new brakes, here u can see how my caliper is a nice fit and also how the disk hasnt been worn in yet. Also I have since painted the calipers red.

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/brakes/brakes.jpg

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:03 AM
I changed some more bushes again, this time for my 5 link rear end. I only changed the ones for 3 of the bars because I have been advised that changing the top passenger side on is not a good move and the panhard rod was already done. However I normally lift the car from where the top bush is located so knowing someone who has a hoist proved useless to me. Its a damn good thing I bought a high lift jack the other day. Hes what I ended up doing:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/lifted.jpg

nasty!

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:03 AM
well I took temporary possesion of this guys car I am getting my 20 valve from. I started with this:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/engine/20vstart.jpg

now this isnt my picture so no comments about the shadow!

I in one night starting at about 8Pm got to this stage:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/engine/half-way.jpg

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:04 AM
I also fitted some new sports pads from a company called QFM and repainted my calipers, looks alright I think:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/brakes/frontside.jpg

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:05 AM
I started to make my custom extractors for my engine today, I spent about an hour and I am realy happy with how far I got considering the standard I made them to.

I decided I would go for 1.5 inch primaries and 2 inch secondaries, I would of gone for 1 3/4 secondaries but 2 inch is a size I already have in mandrel bends.

Heres what I managed to do:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/collector1.jpg

2 x 1.5 inch inlet and the exact size for a flattened 2 inch for the exit. I didn't have a peice of 2 inch stainless at the time so I used a peice of mild as a template only.


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/collector2.jpg

A view from inside, I will do some more finishing later once its welded.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:05 AM
I started to make my extractors, to measure it up right I in my shed put my engine on a brick and attached my spare gearbox and starter. With this in place and with my other extractors laying around I used this as a rough guide to where my pipes should go. This wasn't enough though and what I did instead is compare where the exhuast ports were on the head compared to the single cam engine I have now. I found that by taking my dizzy cap off, clutch line off and alternator out of the way I could put it into the exact position I needed. Still bloody hard but doable.

Well I found out its increadibly hard to get the position right, harder again to shape the pipes right to fit together perfect and almost impossibly hard to get the length exactly right. Well anyway after alot of pain I managed to get it almost right with 3 of the 4 pipes.

Heres some pics, theres some blur though, flashes and shiny stainless pipes don't mix.

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/extractors1.jpg

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/extractors2.jpg

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:05 AM
well I have finally finished the hard part of my extractors and what a job it was to make them, they are all identical length according to my measurements, and they are of a true equal diameter design. The primaries worked out to be a very long 50cm which apparently is good for low down power. Anyway here they are with some temporary paint on them.

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/extractors3.jpg
http://sam.theicy.net/auto/exhaust/extractors6.jpg

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:06 AM
A quick update as a few thigns have happened:



- I have to return my custom rear springs as they are 30mm off from the height I asked for, I like having a low car and its staying that way.



- I bought some ST-141 rear disks which are a huge 280mm diameter and also some some AE-82 twinky calipers to suit. They require some custom brackets to suit once again but I would think they would be easier than what it was for the front of my car. This will mean I will have 280mm disks all round but with vented on the front and solid on the back, total overkill but yeah thats me.



- I had some more braided lines made up, one brake line for my rear brakes and also a clutch line with a bango fitting on one end instead of standard. What this means it comes off the slave cylender at 90 degrees instead of straight on, this means its out of the way of the exhuast. I will have pics for this in due time.



- It looks like I will be rear suspension travel limiting devices in. I desperatly need something to keep my rear springs captive as right now the chopped OEM ones are very loose as it is and the custom springs I am getting have the possibilty of falling right out of my car. Seeing I am making my car safer than factory I am going to make a setup that limits the drop of the diff. It looks like I will be using stainless rods mounted to the body with a slider on the diff housing. When the car body goes up past a point the nut on the bottom of the shaft catches the slider on the diff and lifts it. So tottaly captive springs and tottaly legal, perfect.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:06 AM
I dont have any factory trumpets and I don't plan on losing any power, infact I plan to gain some by changing them, heres number one of four of what I am making to replace them:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/engine/bell.jpg

to fit inside the airbox I will use mandrel bends, it will look bizarre but it will work.

I have seen results of a test that showed that the air flow difference between a full bellmouth and a flare is 3%, so for now I will use this.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:07 AM
UPDATE: Now that I have finished this part I can say now that what I did below DID NOT work. The calipers hit the body but I will still show this in the interest of showing what else I did.




Well that asside this is how I setup my soon to be brake setup, I used the following:

* T-18 diff
* new ST142 180mm brake disks
* Ae-82 brake calipers (same as AE-92)


I did some work on my T-18 diff with good sucess. In the previous week I took the drum brakes bits off and then with some help pulled the axels out. So after taking it apart I ended up with this:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/diff1.jpg

No drum assembly or mounts only the housing, axel and retainer plate. Next I took the old drum backing plate and chopped a peice of the center that is just a bit bigger than the housing, like so:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/diff2.jpg

I need to put these peices back in as they are required to get the right spacing to all for the crush on the bearing, also in the pic is the shim that adds to the right thickness. After cleaning it up I put it back in with the shim and some gasket sealer and then bolted it back together. Heres how it turned out:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/diff3.jpg

With a quick spray of black paint it looks factory, which is exactly the look I am after. From here I fitted the disk on and modified the ae-82 brake mounts to slide over the housing, which turned up to be an exceptionally easy job. Heres how it looked as a dummy run:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/diff4.jpg

The cardboard is placed between the caliper and the round part of the disk for vertical spacing and the center punch that has been jamed in there manually puts the handbrake on to hold it in the right position. From here I did some tack welds to hold it in. Repeating the process again it turned out pretty good I think:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/diff6.jpg


I am going to have to do get some new custom metal brake lines made up for the diff, which will be cheap and then I will do a dummy run in my car to see that all the clearences are ok. Only then will I do proper welds and bracing of the mounts. I probably should change my brake master cylender too, because this might cause the master to push so far that its goes past what its designed for and then leak.

I also put a rim that came off my Corolla onto the diff with the brakes installed and although the caliper is set so far back it only clears the rim by a single centimeter. I hope my Sprinter rims and also my spare wheel will fit over ok, they should though. Once on my car they should look very interesting indeed.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:07 AM
oh yeah and so far it has cost me this:

$100 - T-18 diff with adjustable panhard rod
$30 - Rear half of the T-18 tailshaft of the install
$130 - Brand new brake disks
$50 - Calipers

so so far its only $310 for a disk brake rear end thats compatable with a Zenki LSD that I am trying to get.



I have been quoted around $20 for the metal lines and I will probably need 2 elbows and 2 reducers so make that another $10. The diff center should be around $800 to $1300. So if its $1100 I should cost me a total of $1450.




Now the standard price for a genuine Trueno diff is $2000, that includes a weak and probably worn out 1-way LSD and disk brakes that are the size of CDs and also probably worn out. I on the other hard have spent hundreds less and would have new disks that are bigger than what almost all 86's have as their front brakes, a new 2-way LSD diff center, thats stronger, longer lasting and has a rebuild kit available for it, and would use common parts to do it all, so spares are easy.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:07 AM
I managed to finish making my own water pipe plate for the back of the head, it took quite a while and looks like this:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rearplate.jpg

the top one is what came with the engine when it was already converted and the bottom is mine. Mine may look rougher and be marginaly heavier but would easly outflow the other one, tottaly un-necessary I am sure but I am a fussy guy. Today I also managed to make some of my top water pipe. What I did is use a flange I made previously and then very tediously chopped small slices out followed by alot of welding and grinding to get the right shape. I will have it as a fixed pipe bolted to the block. I will also fit a heat sheild in due time to stop my extractors boiling the water more. Pic coming soon.




heres a dodgy pic of what it looks like on the engine:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/rearplate2.jpg

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:08 AM
Today I started making a tottaly new setup for the cooling that doesnt require any cross-over pipes, so basicly I have wasted my time so far, great! The information I got requires the use of a RWD water pump so I tried using a single cam one (4AC).

Anyway down to it: I took my stock water pump off and this is how it looked:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/barefront.jpg


I found a spare pump sitting in my back yard in the weather, it had been there for many years, needless to say time hadent treated it well, heres it alongside the 20V one, notice how the 20V one has no provision for a thermostat (right):

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/2pumps.jpg



I took it apart and found a huge black spider waiting for me, that found itself inbeded in the cracks of soles in my steel capped boots. I found a broken bolt which I drilled out out and tapped and I also disassembled the housing. From here I cleaned it up with some acid based mag wheel cleaner which worked wonders. I decided to get a new front assembly if this works out so I didnt clean it.


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/pumphousing.jpg



Once I took the top section off it fit nicely onto the engine:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/pump.jpg



After doing this I fitted the pulley off the 20V and I found I had a problem:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/thermopulley.jpg


and that was that the pulleys didnt line up, I will consider my options from here, a custom pulley seems to be in order. I have been told though that theres 2 versions of shafts on this pump so I will see whats around.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:09 AM
Also today I readjusted my front suspension, I raised the height of the front to make it oversteer less, as a bonus I can now roll a coke can under my car without it hitting the exhaust.

The result of my tweaks is that the car is now about 1.5 cm higher in the front and it still oversteers a bit but its much better. I can't wind it up more because I will lose too much turn in response. I hope to gain some of that back which I lost when I add some negative camber. Perhaps then i will be able to make it handle even more neutral and still have an as good turn in.


A downside though is that while I did it at a friends I was testing my car in a residential area (under the speed limit) and I upset one guy because I went a bit fast around a corner next to his house. I will be doing that stuff somewhere else from now on or during a time when theres no-one on the roads but me.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:09 AM
Heres some stuff I have worked on prior to this forum:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/stereo/headunit.jpg

My custom center console. This car comes standard with a double din hole, or something close to it. So what I did is cut up a stainless plate to fit ontop, cut out the hole in the middle for the face and then covered it. I love the finish and its sturdy too. The way the head unit is held in is a different nighmare altogether. I might take a pic of that soon. I think I am going to have a P.H.D is fidely crap when I am done with this car.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/interior/boostgauge.jpg

This was put in my car when I was getting it ready for my turbo 4agze conversion, it's still there though and will be untill I get an oil-temp gauge to replace it. This is far from a standard mounting job too, the cup was from Speco and the gauge was from Autometer, both 2 5/8 but slightly different sizes, so it didnt fit. I ended up cutting a slot in the side and having a tiny bolt to clamp it to compensate. I also got a friend to tig weld a mount on I made and I had it painted. This is also light but very solidly mounted.



Next up is my "WTF was I thinking?" parcel shelf, a project that has collected dust for a while now, I will get back to this in due time. Here it is the strangest parcel shelf for a Sprinter ever!

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/stereo/shelf1.jpg

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/stereo/shelf2.jpg

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/stereo/shelf3.jpg


I will soon also show my short shifter and revisit my parcel shelf for more work.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:10 AM
well with Gavins idea I tried to solve my water pump problem with using the front asemebly off the 20V and the rear housing off the 4Ac. Now the 20V has one extra blade on the impellor however I found this to be irrelevant. Heres how they looked:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/2pumpsinside.jpg

Fitting the two together I found they came within about 1mm flat from fitting. So I very carefully ground down the impellor blades on the 20V water pump. This was a bit tricky as one big slip and it would be the sealing ability of the housing. After taking a bit off I would paint it silver, and rub it against the rear housing which was black to see where the high spots are. Folowed shortly by more grinding. Soon enough the two fit together nicely and I purposefully kept it a close fit for efficiency reasons. The original blades are further into the housing so by grinding the 20V ones to suit I had a reduced surface area to push water. However I think this would be compensated by the fact that I has reduced the tollerances betwen the blades and the housing from about 2mm to next to nothing. Also add to that the extra blade and if that wasn't enough my Hyundai radiator would make short work of any extra heat if there was any. This may even have the benifit of less power losses in turning the pump. Anywya heres how the blades ended up looking:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/blades.jpg



Now that thats been done look at how the bottom outlet faces staright into the dise of the alternator:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/altandcooling.jpg

So it's time to make a custom alternator mount and some piping.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:10 AM
Just a short update, I have been held up with my other car and other problems, add to that having another family member hog the garage for weeks.

So what I have done is to take the two belt tensioners off the block and all the cast iron mounts. I did not measure them but I am sure they weighed about 3+ kg together. In their place using a small peice of metal I made a simple looking mount that pivots the alternator from the bottom on the exhaust side down low. I am going to modify a simple 'pull and tighten' tensioner. I bought one of a ST-141 corona today that looks useable.

Other than that I have been do busy to do anything else.




thanks, your right I do do everything myself. In general people don't or can't make things to my standards, or its just too impractical/expensive to get it done elsewhere. The only things I have sent off is the alarm install. I tried and couldnt get it running so the guy found a few wires in the wrong spot (pathetic instructions!) and of course the window tint, I would never attempt that myself.

I am planning heaps still and if you wait long enough it will be all here. Some of the things I havent talked about are:


-Carbon fiber: I found out I can get carbon fiber cheaper than I was intially quoted and hence I will get some and try making some stuff with it.

-The finish of that parcel shelf- I have an idea how I can use it for a mould without wasting it. I might even use some carbon fiber to finish the shape.

-Cometics: nice and mild stuff like a front lip and side skirts from a factory levin


and of course heaps more

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:11 AM
theres a composite place that's in Springvale which is in the S.E suberbs. By memory they as follows:



1 square meter of 200g carbon fiber + 200ml of resin for $50. If someone knows a cheaper place then please let me know. This is still bloody expensive however I would probably make alot of smaller things. One of my first things I think would be a skin for the bottom of my sunroof when i take it out. I will have to put a layer of fiberglass ontop though to stop the carbon fiber reacting and causing corrosion, but I will probably just make it a thin layer.


Also if someone knows where I can source Cro-Mo steel from that I also would like to know

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:11 AM
well I tried the 20V FWD but not a 16V I am happy to use the 20V front with its pulley anyway. I think it is adventagous because I get to have an extra blade onthe water pump, a newer front, tigher clearences because I ground them myself and thinner blades for less drag.



Also soon I will post some more projests I have in mind of stuff I have already done but not documented.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:11 AM
another mod from a while back:



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/interior/shifter.jpg



this is my short shifter. Pretty crude really but works better than what you may think. This was off my corolla T-50 I had spare. I basicly chopped the vibration insulator out and then welded in the shank of a bolt to get the height back up. Doing some driving I found that I had to strech my hand way too far for 1st and 3rd so I cut it again and welded it in on an angle, in the pic its in neutral so it shows how much its be moved towards me back and to the right. After doing that I found it suits me perfect, it stays clear of the hardbrake along with everything else. I think it feels really good, so much so I would stil want this even if I liked to make slow gear-changes. The reaction I have had from people who have tried it has been simular. The only downside is that without the vibration insulator I get more force though my hand, I occasionly feel it jar my hand with a particully vicious gearchange. I am hoping a nice leather gear knob will help a bit there. But all in all it's a minor issue.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:12 AM
and something a bit more recent:



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/interior/boss1.jpg



This is a photo of my unfinished boss kit that I made myself, I am currently using it and the only thing it needs is a peice of 3.5 inch pipe to be welded on as a shroud to hide the horn holes, cables, etc... Since the photo was taken I have since wired the horn in and obviously attached the wheel. Notice the base where I am using the original (well a corolla original) plastic plate with the brass ring, this is to keep the horn running. To make this I chopped the center out of my old Corolla wheel and machined it down in the lathe at work when no-one was looking, welded a peice of pipe, made my eloborate flange and welded that on. When I get that 3.5 inch pipe i will take it off again and weld that on. In the meantime however it works great, would be almost indestructable while still being very light and still lets the horn work. I know this is an unsual thing to make but it has worked out well so far and besides I made this during a few quiet times at my work

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:14 AM
and more parts again:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/suspension/rods.jpg


Here I converted my own traction and pan-hard rods. I don't think I will end up using the traction rods so if someone wants them for a small price let me know. I will probably make up a few more pan-hards for my friends as well. Right now I am using an adjustable pan-hard that came with my T-18 diff but I will fit one of my own because it will be metric, look better and I will just be able to say that I made it. For both I used grade 8.8 threads and nuts, and the rod joiners are grade 5, the threads are 20mm for the traction rods and 16mm for the pan-hard so I won't have to worry about any of these ever snapping on me.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:15 AM
whoa! thanks Jay, however if your impressed that easy then your totaly going to flip out if I get enough time to make some of the ideas I have. How does this sound for a warm up:

-A 12V industrial programmable controller running a variable length intake system with analogue feedback for optimum intake tuning for most of the rev range. The controller could also be programmed to do various other functions such as shift light control and so many others.


-Homemade composite bonnet with Cro-Mo pipe supports, I am aiming for under 5kg

Also with excentric dual linkage hinges to open the bonnet up and out of the way in a way that hasn't been done before, so I would have total access to the engine bay and also look very interesting.

and so many other ideas that I know are too eloborate or I will never have time to explore, but who knows what I will come up with in the long run.





Also an update:




- As part of a deal I did my RCAs are being machined for me and are in the middle of completeion, they will be 60mm.



- Also part of my deal I will have some lower control arms modified to be adjustable. This means I will have adjustable camber from the bottom not the top. I don't think having a spherical bush in the top suspension is a good idea and just about all but Noltec do this. This way I can keep my stock strut top.


- I am almost finished in me making a custom alterator bracket, I will finish it clean it up and take some pics soon. I still need to find a different belt though that's longer, anyone have any sujestions? is an air-con one longer?

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:15 AM
Well I had issue with my second car so I had to take it off the road, so once I got rid of it in a blaze of glory I had to rely on my sprinter as a daily trasport. This is really bad because I can't do things like this diff practically because I have to have the car back on the road the next day. Add to this I havn't had access to a hoist for a month because it has been occupied. Anyway my diff still is one of my higher priorities right now and what I might do is to get my car back on the hoist, take the current diff out, do what I need to do with the brake mounts and then put the current diff back in so I can drive it still. I will need to do that about 3 to 4 times I think but it should only take about 20 min each way. Anyway I am looking for another daily driver so I wont have to do this sort of crap. Also I have been overwealmed with other things that have kept me away from my garage and they will bug me for a while yet. I am hoping to work on this diff in one months time, then I will see if this combo really works.


I tried my 14 inch rim on my diff and I found that because of the oversized disk and the fact that the caliper sits out a fair way it comes quite close to the inside of the rim. If it wasnt for the fact that the disks sit so far inwards then a 14 just wouldn't fit. However that's not to say all 14 inch rims fit, some rims have the recess to put the tyre on on the inside. Rims with a big dish almost always have this and I dont think those will clear the caliper.

One other thing that might cause some issues is that the hydraulic lines coming off the caliper leave off an awkward angle I will probably need an elbow or something to make it work. I will get custom metal lines made up for the rest though regardless.


I cheated when it came to finding a plate to mount the calipers on, all they are are the original AE-82 Corolla ones with the steel dust covers removed, i found to my pleasant suprise that all I had to do was cut the original hole in the middle into a slot and it slid over the diff housing. I will need to brace it but thats very easy. This is have a really nice factory look too which is just what I want for anyone in blue looking at my car.


I have no idea about fitting axels off T-18 into a Trueno, I guess if its a zenki (earlier) trueno then it shouldnt be a problem but who knows

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:16 AM
Heres a pic of my steering wheel with the half finished boss kit, the steering wheel center wasnt made for it but some simple mods fixed that.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/interior/wheel2.jpg


notice also my 4 piston cross-drilled keyring in the ignition

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:16 AM
I almost finished my outlet pipe:



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/pipe.jpg



now all I need to do is drill a hole and weld on the pipe that suits the thermostat bypass water. It turned out better than expected and fits on the engine real nice (pic soon). I cut the flange myself, used a peice of bent pipe from a truck mirror mount welded to a peice of exhaust that I machined grooves into to seal the water. The outlet on the head was an oval shape so I welded on one pipe and then used a second peice welded on on an angle to cover the hole and provide unrestricted water flow, this was not an easy job but turned out good enough.







Now a question for the ae-86 gurus who read this:

-What is the stock redline cutoff?

-whats a place that the body bends in an adverse way to handling? apart from the strut towers?

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:16 AM
I finished my top pipe:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/cooling/pipe2.jpg


I tried to take a pic of it on my engine but I dont have enough light at any time of the day it seems. I will try again soon.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:17 AM
I also finished my custom altrnator bracket:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/engine/altbracket1.jpg




http://sam.theicy.net/auto/engine/altbracket2.jpg



I used the tensioner off a ST-141 Corona and used a 90 degree angle that bolts to the far left extractor mount bolt. The only mods I did to the tensioner is a welded nut to the end of it for easy adjustment. It looks a bit crude but is very light, simple, looks factory and should work really well. I also bolted the alternator up from the reverse side. When I made the lower mount I used a few washers to simulate the width of the engine mount that it would have to fit over, so when I put it together it should go together nicely.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:17 AM
QUICK UPDATE: I finally have the chance to take my car off the road for 3 weeks and I have already dropped the diff. I will be fitting my T-18 diff shortly and I will determine if the position of the calipers is ok, so far it's looking good. If good I will take it out again, weld it up properly with braces modify the housing and then get some custom metal lines made up to hook it up.

I want to extend the brackets for the lower control arms, so instead of getting traction brackets I will just have modified mounts instead. This will have the advantage that mine will be lighter, stronger, simpler and look factory compared to profesional traction brackets.

I also want to weld a set of cups around the bottom spring seats to possitively locate the spring, shouldnt be needed in theory but I have found that they can be.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:17 AM
another update: Looks like I have received some bad info, AE-82 calipers WILL NOT fit onto a normal t-18 rear end with corona disks. There just isnt any room for it. It may be possible if the car was like a standard unsagged height which is bloody high, the mechanical handbrake was removed or the lower arm was moved. Lucky for me I needed to drop my trailing arms to correct for the lowering and I did this by cutting the mounts off flush from my Sprinter diff and then welding them on the bottom of my T-18 ones bringing the pivot point closer to the ground. This enabled me to have more room for the caliper mechinism and I looks that with a bit of a cut out of the body it might fit. its a risk though.

This definetly isnt an easy conversion.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:17 AM
Yeah no problems Chris, I won't be needing it anymore. I do however want to see if the ae-92 handbrake cables are any different. The reason I ask is because you may not need custom cables at all, see below.

thanks man, I am so used to a welder I don't know how others can work on my car without one, even my gauge pod has custom brackets and clamps welded onto it.



UPDATE: I have managed to fit my ae-82 calipers, ended up massaging the body a little in one spot, lowering the trailing arms for the suspension, modifying the hand-brake cable mounts and I am getting custom metal lines made. i will get some pics as soon as I get my hands back on my camera in 2 weeks.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:18 AM
no unfortunelty that's not it, I tried this setup with my T-18 diff and with the standard shocker mounts. I dragged out my old stuffed OEM shockers for testing purposes. The caliper doesnt even come close to fitting because the handbrake mechinism doesnt have room at all. I also found out that my commodore shockers have a significantly longer stroke. Anyhow I am going to ditch my custom mounts and instead get the standard bush pressed out and replaced with a normal bush. This will allow me to run the standard mounts. I didn't want to do this before because I didn't want to mess with my shockers for warranty purposes seeing I wasn't sure if they would work for me and they were bloody expensive. I just need to find out what bushes to use, the standard sprinter ones have a too small outside diameter. Not that any of this matters anymore I have with alot of work managed to fit ae-82 calipers on, problem solved. I feel sorry for anyone that even comes close to trying to copy me on this one though.

Heres a working to people, don't attempt to use ae-82 calipers, I made it work but it was very hard.

yes your right the celica seats, they are nothing too special but a big improvement. Awesome upgrade for the money I paid.

I would love to open a workshop or atleast work in a worshop making custom parts however I don't have such an opertunity. I would make bits in my free time to sell if I wasn't such a busy person.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:18 AM
my car is finally running again but not without a serious amount of work, some major issues and one stupid mistake that did so much damage. Anyway but first heres how my car now looks notice the rear brakes:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/side.jpg





a close up of how the new brakes fit and my rims that I gave a bit of a polish:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/rearbrakes1.jpg

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:18 AM
Heres a pic of how I modified my diff housing. People before me have used bolt on "traction brackets" which I think is a bit of a dodgy and expensive pair of parts to add to a car. I instead did something that's still crude but lighter, stronger and more subtle, no rice. Heres a low quality pic:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/diff-mount.jpg


Its not hard to see what I did, I cut the original mounts off my Sprinter diff and modified the new diff welding them on the bottom of the original brackets, basicly doubling them up. I admit it's really rough but it works. Although I will never be able to say for sure it certainly seems that it has made a big difference. Before I used to spin my wheels going out from the top of my street real easy and now it just grips. Awesome mod for anyone who is into handling (drifters excluded).


Right now I am considering moving the top mounts also and using a custom curved set of upper arms to stop it hitting the diff housing, I dont know if this will do anything though, anyone know?

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:19 AM
this is what I had to do to fit my disks continuing from when I last modifed the diff to take the drums off and prepare the caliper mounts as shown in the earlier post (many pics soon):


* Modified the diff housing to lower the lower control arm mounts. I was going to do this anyway to correct the rear roll center but it also gave me the room to fit a caliper in there.


* Modified the diff housing to have the caliper mounts. The disks fitted on like they were meant to be there so that was all good but the calipers obviously needed to be held in place. So what I did is weld a custom caliper mount directly to the housing. The position had to be exact, too high and it would hit the body of the car, too low and the handbrake mechinism on the calpier would hit the lower control arm.


* Modify the body of the car, to make sure my car could handle the absolute worst case scenerio I took the springs and bump stops right out and then looked to see what would happen. I ended up bending one lip in because the bleed nipple had a theoretic chance of being sheared off. I also had to massaged the inner gaurd a little just incase a severe side load pushed the axle in one direction while being fully bottomed out. Just about impossible doing anything short of a wonky jump off something but still I have high standards. I also swapped my adjustable pan-hard rod to one of my own contruction which I had to carefully adjust with a tape measure. After all this I could make the diff housing touch the body of the car before the calipers did. I proceded to put the springs and chopped bump-stops back in then.


* Alter the angle of the hadbrake stays on each of the Corolla calipers, I found I had to have the handbrake cables come out from under the lower control arms. However the original calipers had the cables come out on an angle that made them likely to run against the arms. So I changed the mounts to have the come off straight. As a bonus the arms are now pulled on a more direct angle and therefore should have a stronger force imposed on them.

* Weld in 2 new hanbrake cable mounts under the car, this was to hold the handbrake cables in place so they could have the inner cables pulled. I had to weld 2 new moutns in because I stuck with standard Corolla cables and this way I didnt have to modify them at all. It was however a hidious job which I don't want to do ever again.

* had the original hard hydraulic lines shortened and reflared to take a new fitting. I then had 2 new custom braided lines made up. Each one of these lines goes from the join on the shortened metal lines, under the spring seat and over onto the caliper.

* Installed different cable mounts for the middle of the cable

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:19 AM
However this still isn't finished, i still need to modify the handbrake, because of the changed angle on the calipers or the fact that Corollas have a different amount of leverage on the handbrake mine just doesn't pull the cables enough. So I am going to change or modify the original handbrake mechinism to have a greater ratio of cable pull. Maybe even make it with adjustable leverage.

I also have just about zero rear brake bias now, I am considering various ways to remedy this, I am open to sujestions on this one.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:19 AM
Bobski: they have a brake proportioning valve under the master cylender, the trick is to remove the internal spring. As shown here:

http://www.my-acoustic.com/Car/brakes/rear..._efficiency.htm (http://www.my-acoustic.com/Car/brakes/rear_efficiency/rear_efficiency.htm)

I will need much more than that though. I will need to look into it but maybe fitting one off a Supra will help. As for the 20V it's still ages away as I want to do other things first and I have so many other things in the way which limits the time I can spend on doing work. I do plan to finish my brake upgrade and also my suspension upgrade before anything else. But I am getting closer now.


monkeymajik: I didn't know whiteline sold traction brackets, but yeah what I did sure is a simple way to go. I like it because it was free and it doesn't stand out if someone sticks their head under there. I could imagine a police officer cringing if they saw something like that. I plan to do a few donuts in a mud patch once I have set it up to make everything like original and non shiny to hide my work down there.


I forgot to mention that I had to temporarily put my standard shockers back in. I won't be making custom mounts this time and instead I want to press out the original Commodor bush and fit a conventional one. I need to find out what fits though. I also need to fit some kind of stroke limiting device as the shockers have a longer stroke and that would cause the lower control arms to hit the caliper.

Lastly I plan to have heaps more photos in about a weeks time

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:20 AM
Forgot to mention my stupid mistake. What I did when i put everything together finally after all those weeks is to check all the bolts for tension, all clearences and fitment of parts. What I didn't think of was the oil level, it was bone dry and I took it out, 10 minutes later I ground to a stop. I realised what I had done then and walked home. I managed to come back with some car oil and I filled it up a bit on the side of the road. This got me moving again and I got it home where I drained it and filled it with gear oil. Now I have since done a couple of hundred on it and its noisy as hell but its still ok. Still that's a leson for me. So now I have to change all 4 bearings and I am going to fit some diff gears out of a TA-22 celica with my newly arrived trd diff center.


Another stupid thing happened today, I went around a corner this morning at a decent speed and the whole car wobbled, I reacted instantly so it wasn't a threat but I knew something wasn't right. I pulled over not long after to find a dead flat tyre, oh yeah I just thought I would do a quick swap. I jacked my car up and went for my spare tyre when I remembered that I had a 13inch spare wheel, this thing wouldn't of fit over any of my 4 brakes I now have, my reaction to that was: oh F###. I had to call my dad to bring down a spare bbs wheel which was the wrong size but useable still. Anyway this is the price of having a modified car, I just hope my luck changes soon.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:20 AM
I managed to take some good pictures, this time a proper one of my custom diff housing:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/rearinside.jpg

here the extended brackets can be seen, I didnt grind the welds flush for strength reasons, this is one thing I can let go during a high speed corner. The braided line comes off the caliper and goes under the spring seat. The mounts are also visable and its obvious that I have just chopped the original corolla ones and welded them on. Also of note is how close the trailing arm goes to the handbrake mechinism. This is why I am going to have to put stroke limiting rods in before I refit my adjustable Commodor shocks.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:20 AM
http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/metalline.jpg


The other side and end of the diff showing how the braided line joins on the original metal line which was shortened.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:21 AM
and for the handbrake cables, first up the mounts on the caliper were changed:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/cablemount.jpg

As shown here I chopped and welded a peice in so that they came out straighter. This allowed the cables to go under the lower control arms.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/diffunderbody.jpg

from here it runs under the body is a pretty simple way.



http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/cablemounts.jpg

and I welded these additional mounts in to hold the cables in the right spot.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:21 AM
nightdevil: see below


So far this is what my diff cost me:


T-18 diff + adjustable pan-hard rod - $100
Rear T-18 tailshaft half - $35 (I think)
Brand new disk rotors - 2x $65
Calipers, mounts + cables - $40
Custom metal lines - $10
Braided brake lines - 2x $70

so the running total excluding bushes so far is $455 and no I won't do this for other people!


also a special mention for Rowvile brake and clutch, they have always been really friendly and only charged $70 for each of the 5 lines I have had made up so far and a miserable $10 to get both my metal lines shorted and refitted with a new fitting.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:21 AM
here you go, firstly the top:


http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/brackettop.jpg

and the bottom view:

http://sam.theicy.net/auto/diff/bracketbottom.jpg


its not finished yet though, even though I am using it and it's strong enough I am going to weld an extra brace on each one. Also Chris are you going to extend your lower pivot point on your diff? I really recomend you do.

rthy
9th April 2006, 03:22 AM
I bought some "engine stop smoke" today for $4 from the warehouse, I plan to put it in my diff housing to see if it shuts the whine up, it's so very wrong but its not like I have much to lose. I will also parkt the car on an angle and fill it up with some old gearbox oil I took out of my friends car that has been sitting in a bucket for about 6 months.


79rollaboy: sorry for the delay, its "8A9". It is a respray however and does seem darker and more metalic than the original, however the difference is small and it could just be that its because the original had fadded.


boofis: thanks for the kind words, as for my modified mounts that work like traction brackets I don't have any better pictures than what I have posted but they are pretty simple to understand. Basicly I have chopped the bottom mounts of another diff that was identical and welded them on the bottom of my existing ones. What this does is make the lower trailing arms bolt lower down on the diff housing. This compensates for the fact the car has been lowered and instead of the bar being on an angle it's instead relatively level like an original unlowered and unsagged sprinter (try finding one of those!). I might try something with the top mount soon.